BMP215 Holly Worton ~ Boost Your Visibility With Reviews, Testimonials, Referrals, & Shoutouts

Today’s Guest

Table of Contents

I’m back again, with another solo episode! Today I’m talking about the importance of social proof, and the role it plays in getting clients. I discuss why I think it’s important to both give and receive reviews, testimonials, referrals, and shoutouts to the people, books, podcasts, videos, and other things we truly enjoy. In doing so, we lift each other up and everyone benefits.

Listen to this episode

What You’ll Learn

How to express gratitude and spread the love by giving testimonials and reviews
How to ask for and receive testimonials and reviews
How to get the mindset you need to give and receive social proof
Specific actions you can take today to get started

Things I Discussed

Connect With Holly

How to Subscribe

Click here to subscribe via iTunes
Click here to subscribe via RSS
Click here to subscribe via Stitcher

Help Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head on over to iTunes and kindly leave us a rating and a review! You can also subscribe, so you’ll never miss an episode.

Related episodes

Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 215. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another solo episode. Today, I am going to talk about social proof as a form of visibility. We are going to talk about reviews, testimonials, shout-outs; all that stuff. And, I am really excited to talk about this, but before I get into that I want to bring up a couple of shows that I have recently been a guest on, because I think it is really important to share other people’s podcasts, where I have been a guest, so that you can find potential new podcasts to listen to; and also, hear what it is like to listen to me engage with other people from the other side of the mic.

So, I was recently interviewed on:

The Unstoppable Coach Podcast with Millette Jones. And we talked about stuff, mindset-related. I had a really, really, great time on the show we talked about coaching; my background in how I have grown in my coaching business; and I really enjoyed It. So, I would recommend that you check that out, if you go to: HollyWorton.com/unstoppable that will redirect you to Millette’s website and you can check it out there; and of course, as always, if you enjoyed the podcast, rate and review on iTunes and subscribe. So, that’s the first one.

The second one, Kelly Covert interviewed me for her podcast which is called In Her Voice. We talked all about mindset, and if you go to HollyWorton.com/voice, that will redirect you to Kelly’s website; and I hope you enjoy that episode, that was a really fun episode. Kelly was also a guest on this show, which you may remember from a recent episode: number 210, which was not that long ago. So, Kelly had a great, great, chat about mindset and I think you will enjoy it, so have a look at that and please rate, review, and subscribe if you enjoyed it.

Finally, I was a guest for the second time, on Amanda Cook’s wellpreneur podcast, and if you go to: hollyworton/wellpreneur you can hear us talking about intuitive business, it was a really fun episode. We were getting I down to the woo side of business and talking about different ways that we tap into our intuition, and how you can tap into your intuition to build your business; we talked about: oracle cards, we talked about Business Intuition book; we talked about Amanda’s WellPreneur book; we talked about all kinds of stuff. So, yeah, there you go: HollyWorton.com/wellpreneur and that will get you to that episode. And, again, please rate, review and subscribe if you enjoyed the episode.

So, that is all for now in terms of places I’ve been, so, let’s get back to the topic at hand. I wanted to, as I said, talk about social proof, and that’s a crappy marketing phrase that I really dislike, but we’ve got these phrases and that’s what things are called, and we can make up new terms for them but it is not going to take effect as people call it that. So, what the heck is social proof? It is when you give a review for a book, or are rating a review for a podcast; or a testimonial for someone’s website; or a shoutout; that stuff is all social proof. So, the idea is that when you go to someone’s website, or their sales page, and you think: oh, who is this person? Do I want to work with them? And you see their testimonials on their website you think: oh, okay, well this is a person that other people know, like and trust; so, I guess that makes them more trustworthy and maybe I’ll give them a go. That’s it in a nutshell.

I am sure that you have gone to other people’s testimonial pages on their website, or on their sales page. I always find it interesting to see when I get to someone’s sales page who has given them a testimonial, is it anyone I know? And, that always makes a person more trustworthy, because word-of-mouth recommendations are really powerful because, if I enjoyed working with someone then maybe my friends will enjoy working with them too. I refer people all the time and generally speaking people are happy with the people I have referred them to, because friends are kind of similar and something that I like might be something that my friends like, so it makes sense.

So, in the same way that we give word-of-mouth recommendations, website testimonials kind of complete the same function. This is a topic that popped into a session I had with my friend Jo Trewartha this morning; she was giving me a session on health and wellness stuff, using two techniques which she is trained in: meta-data and AM, and I will put links to all of this in the show notes. And, somehow, the topic came up of the Amazon review that I keep talking about: I have blogged about, and I have talked about online; and I have talked about on my podcast more than once. And, so I brought that up again; and I was saying how useful it was for me to receive that because it was so painful and then I learned from stuff as I was working through the stuff that came up around that. But, also, we were talking about how important it is to have lots of positive reviews so that when people see the negative reviews they are not swayed in that direction, thinking whatever it is thing that you have created is a piece of crap because you have just got these horrible reviews. And, we ended up talking about how some people are really, really, generous when it comes to giving shout-outs, testimonials and reviews and some people I think just don’t think about it. So, what I am going to talk about in today’s episode is: giving…it is not feedback it is more like giving shout-outs; giving testimonials; giving reviews. And at the same time receiving and asking for testimonials, shout-outs and reviews for yourself; so, we are going to talk about the mindset that you need for this to happen easily on both ends and how you can take action today.

So, let’s get into it, let’s start with giving because I think it is really, really, important to give if you want to receive. So, let’s look at giving social proof. So, I see this as a way to say thank you for a service that you have received, a way to express our gratitude; one thing is to just to say: thank you so much that was an amazing session, I really enjoyed working with you. And, that’s fantastic, and I think it is important; but it is even more powerful when we can go online and give the person a shout out or write them a testimonial for their website; because that will help them get more clients, or more readers, or more watchers, or listeners, or whatever. Giving this review, this shout out, this testimonial is going to help them grow their business. And, I think this is an important thing to point out, because if we are all helping each other – obviously not giving fake reviews – but if we are all helping each other by reviewing and giving testimonials to the things that we really enjoyed, we are lifting each other up. And it doesn’t take that long to write a review or write a testimonial. It is just a couple of lines and that can make such a big difference to people.

So, what are things that you can do? So, I had two healing sessions today which is quite unusual; I had that session with Jo and I had another sound healing session with Judith Quin, and again I will put her details in the show notes. And, after each session, I went straight to Facebook and I said: wow, I just had a great session with Jo, and a great session with Judith, we worked on some deep stuff and I really enjoyed it, I highly recommend her. That’s it. It took me 30 seconds to do, a minute if you include clicking onto Facebook and getting in and out of there. But, it gives her that shout-out and it allows other people to see: oh, this is who Holly works with. Because, I work with myself all the time, using heart-centred energy™ work, and yes, I still used Psych-K® with myself and I find it really useful, I find it really powerful but there is only so much I can do on my own and I find that to really dig deeper and to get to the deeper stuff that’s where I need to get help from other people.

Working with Jo for example, she is really intuitive; we got to places I never would have thought to go, if I had been doing this work on my own, so that was really powerful working with her, even though we were working on health and wellness stuff, obviously life stuff and past life stuff came up and has given me loads of stuff to think about, and new perspectives for my work and it has been really powerful. The same with Judith, she works with sound healing, which is something that I have never experienced before; I love it because it is vibrational, it is an embodied experience and it is not something that comes from your head; and a lot of the stuff that I do, especially with Psych-K® is very head-based — it is about creating belief statements and programming belief statements in your subconscious mind — so I find it really useful to do something that works with the body: HEW™ and this sound healing. I find it really, really, useful to work with other people to dig even deeper than I can sometimes go on my own, because I have limitations; I am stuck in my head all day… I am not stuck (it is really nice in here!) but, I am in my head all day, I don’t have the same perspective that someone else has when they come to me, or I go to them and they help me and ask me questions and they can help me dig deeper and they can help me dig into place that I hadn’t thought to dig. So, that’s why I work with myself, and I also help with other people.

So, I find it really fascinating to see who other people work with, because like I said at the beginning, if my friends are working with someone then they might be a good fit for me, rather than finding a person on the internet. So, there is a lot of power in it. So, you can give them a shout-out on Facebook, or somewhere else online; one a session is over you can write up a testimonial for them that they can use on their website; and this is also really important because having a testimonial, your testimonial on someone’s website, it also gives you visibility; because usually people include your photo, your name, your tag line, or what it is that you do. And that might generate clients for you because someone might be looking at that sales page of that website and think: ooh, so and so, oh my god she does that, I have been looking for someone who does that thing! And then they click to your website and they might become a client, so, when you give someone else a testimonial for their website, not only are you helping them, but that might come back to you. and the same goes for Facebook; because if you tag them and they put the post on their timeline, other people might see that and think: oh, who’s that working with this person, and click on it. They might, they might not; but it is a way to get that energy moving, that energy of word-of-mouth; recommendations that will lift us all up.

The same goes for books; if you have read a book that you enjoyed, or if you have read a book this year that you have enjoyed, or in your lifetime; go to Goodreads, go to Amazon; review that book. On Goodreads, you don’t even need to write a review, you can give it a star rating and that takes seconds. On Amazon, you do have to write a review; you have to write a headline and you have to give a star raining, and you have to write a very short review, but really, you only have to write a couple of lines. And Amazon reviews are so powerful, and so helpful to readers, assuming that the reviews are positive, because they can really help lift up the ratings of the book and help the book be more visible when they are searching for a book like that and can really, really, help people get book sales. It only takes a couple of minutes of your time, and if you enjoyed a book, especially if it is kind of a new emerging writer, that may not have thousands or hundreds or even twenty, thirty, reviews on Amazon, it is especially important to help them. So, review some books, review some podcasts (like this one!) like any other podcast that you listen to; those are really, really, helpful because people who are searching and looking for a podcast on a particular topic, if they want to see that it has got a lot of great reviews, they are more likely to try it and get more readers; and it only takes a couple of minutes, you can do it from your computer, you can do it from your phone and it only takes a couple of minutes.

Referrals: referring people or podcasts, or books, or whatever, to other people that’s also really powerful saying: ‘hey I read this book, it was amazing’, posting that on social media and then you can write a blog post telling stories about maybe the top ten books that you have read this year; or the top ten healers that you have worked with; or therapists that you have worked with, coaches or whatever. You can write about that, or you can do a video about that or you can do a podcast episode about that and give a big shout-out to these books, these podcasts, these healers, whatever; that’s also really powerful. There are so many ways you can give back and express your gratitude through giving shout-outs and giving people a boost and social proof.

So, I think it is really important to make it a habit. So, I have the habit of: whenever I get off a session with someone I will go onto Facebook and give them a shout-out. That’s pretty common for me; and when I finish working with someone, I will usually write them a testimonial if they haven’t already asked me for one. Sometimes people will give you guidelines on how to write a testimonial; or, you can just write it yourself with whatever comes from your heart. So, I have that little system. Develop a system that works for you: reviewing a book as soon as you have finished it; reviewing a podcast as soon as you have discovered it and listened to a couple of episodes you like; whatever works for you…but find a system that makes it easy for you to give back by giving that: those testimonials; those reviews; shout-outs. And, like I said, I do truly believe that what goes around comes around. If you are spreading the love; if you are recommending people; it is going to come back to you. Maybe not through the exact same people that you have recommended but that energy is going to come back; and I know that sounds really vague, but it is something that I deeply, deeply, believe.

You can write a testimonial for someone and copy and paste it in different places. So, if you write a testimonial for their website, you could copy and paste it on LinkedIn; you could copy and paste it on a blog post; or if you decide to do a compilation blog post of stuff that has been useful to you. So, you don’t have to keep writing, and writing, and creating; you can write one thing and then use it in different places. If you have a resources page on your website, where you like to refer books, courses, people, you can do that as well. That is another great way to help people out, by sending out her people their way. Even though, as I said, I do believe that what goes around comes around, if you are spreading the love, the love will come back to you; but that doesn’t mean that you have to sit back and take a passive stance in this situation. I do think that it is really important for us to speak up and to ask for testimonials; because some people don’t think about giving them. So, again, this is something that you want to develop a system for; so, if you work with clients in a package setting develop a system where you send them automatically an email at the end of their package saying: it was great to work with you, I really enjoyed it and asking them for a testimonial. And it is really useful if you write email templates that you can use for this, so you don’t have to write the same email over and over; you just copy and paste. And give them some guidelines: what is it that you want them to include in the testimonial? Do you want them to mention where they were when they first started working with you? Where they are now? What they learned? How it was useful to them? Give them some deadlines because not everyone is accustomed to doing this and not everyone will know what to say, for some people it will be easier than others but the more guidelines you give the easier it is. Now, if you are the kind of person that uses intake forms in your business you will have feedback as to where they were at the beginning; and then if you have a little chat with them at the end of the package you can get a clear idea of where they are now compared to that, you have that information; you can feed that back to them and say: “hey you said you were here, and now you are here, could you please mention something like that, or whatever you are comfortable with, in the testimonial.” Obviously, testimonials are more powerful if you have got a name and a face to them but I think that if someone is not comfortable with that, that’s fine too, you have got to go with what they are comfortable with. Also, you may see people giving you shout-outs on the web, whether it is on Twitter, on Facebook: screen shot all of those and keep those in a folder. If think that is really useful to have so that you can look through on days when you are feeling down in your business; but, if you get people’s permission, you can also use them on your website and on your sales pages. So, that’s really powerful.

Also, asking for referrals: ask clients to refer you. So, if you have clients that you really enjoyed working with, ask them to refer you to friends or if they know of anyone you might benefit from working with you. Maybe set up a referral program where if they refer x amount of people, they get a free session, or, money back. Put something together like that, ask people to refer you. Again, some clients are a better fit for us than others, so if you go through your top amount of clients and ask them for referrals you are more likely to get great clients like them, rather than random people from the Internet, which is also good for finding new people, but we want to serve the people that we can most serve and who we can most benefit from working with us. So, that’s why I think referrals are so powerful as friends are similar to friends.

You can also make case studies and tell stories; so, you can ask clients if that’s possible, if that’s okay for you to write up a case-story based on your work with them, but again, that’s the kind of thing that you really have to ask for. So, develop a system for asking for testimonials; if you want to do case studies asking for that; ask, ask, ask. And develop a system to make it easy for you to do this – that’s really important. So, like I said, develop a system where you send out an email at the end of their package; if you do single-sessions, at the end of the session when you are sending the client notes, or the session notes; find what works for you and ask, ask, ask. You do need to ask.

So, next, I wanted to talk about mindset because a lot of people don’t like asking; a lot of people don’t like asking for help; a lot of people don’t like asking for testimonials; a lot of people don’t feel comfortable with this. So, figure out what you need to believe about yourself, and about your business, in order for it to be easy for you to ask for testimonials and ask for case studies and ask for help in this way. What do you need to believe about yourself and about your business? Who do you need to be in order to be that person who easily asks for testimonials? What fears or blocks do you have. What resistance do you have around around asking for help, and asking for testimonials? And what do you need to believe in order to make this happen? That’s really, really, really important stuff. I would really recommend that you spend some time looking at this, so what do you currently believe about your ability to easily ask for testimonials and then maybe journal on it; dig this stuff up; work with someone else; get someone to ask you questions and then do the mindset work to shift your beliefs and shift your blocks at the deeper level. So, I am always talking about this, I am always talking about how you have got to work at the subconscious level; you have got to work at the energy level and shift that stuff, so that you can get the mindset you need in order to make this easy.

So, taking action is a really important part of doing the mindset work. I also always talk about this, you have also always got to have an action plan, you have always got to do the mindset work and take action; that’s how you move up the spiral staircase of business and get to those higher levels and grow as an entrepreneur and as an individual. So, take action today: what are some actions that you could take? I would like to ask you, or suggest, that you take at least one action in the category of giving and one action in the category of receiving. So, giving: you could review the last book that you read on either Amazon or Goodreads; or take it a step further and review the last three books that you read on Amazon or Goodreads. Take a look at the last healer or coach that you worked with; write them a testimonial; or take it a step further and look at the last three people that you worked with; and write three testimonials for them. Give someone a shout-out. Write a blog post of how these people are resources of help to you. Create a resources page on your website. Pick one of those things. Write it down now. Pause this podcast. Write it down now and then get that in your calendar. It really only takes, depending on which of those things you are choosing, if you are just writing a testimonial review it only takes a few minutes. You could also review this podcast if you haven’t already.

So, choose one thing in the category of giving and then choose one thing in the category of receiving. So, write the templates for asking for testimonials. Go through your social media and screen shot some of the comments that people have made. Ask your favourite clients for referrals; ask your favourite clients if you can do a case study on them. Develop a system for getting this stuff; create your end of client package email to send. Choose one of those things and do that: today, or get it in your calendar to make sure that it happens. And then, start working on the other things, work on your mindset, make this easy for you. Because I think if we can create a world where everyone is giving shout-outs and writing reviews and writing testimonials for the stuff that they enjoy, rather than sitting back and silently enjoying these things, it is going to help us all lift each other up and be more successful and have the clients, and have the listeners, and have the readers and have the watchers that we want in our business: on our podcast, on our YouTube channel, in our books. And the more we lift each other up in a genuine way, it is so powerful. We are lifting each other up into higher realms of visibility. I think this is a really important aspect of visibility, this social proof thing and I think it is something that we need to make a habit of. Because, this is such an important way to get new clients and create that know, like and trust that we need for people to sign up or buy our stuff.

So, that’s all for now, please drop me a line and let me know what you thought about this week’s episode or ask me any questions that you might have. You could email me at [email protected]; you can find me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and get in touch. I am on other social places as well, I don’t hang out very much on LinkedIn, but I am there. So, get in touch and I would love to give you a shout out on this show, so if you would like me to read aloud your question or comment I would love to do that as well. And, are you interested in being a special guest on the business mindset podcast? I would love to chat with one of my listeners on a future episode, I would love to hear about who you are, what you do, how the podcast has helped you in your business, which are your favourite episodes and how changing your mindset has changed your life and business? Does that sound good? If so, head over to: hollyworton.com/guest and fill out the form. I will, at some time this year, probably towards the end of the year, be doing a special guest episode interviewing one of my listeners!

I would also love for you to join me in my private Facebook group: Business Mindset Alchemists so we can continue the conversation there; podcasting is such a one-way conversation, it is just me talking to you in your eyes, so I would love to get some feedback from you from the group. It is now opened up to men: Business Mindset Alchemists, it is a group dedicated to exploring business mindset and how you can get the mindset you need to achieve your dreams. So, whether you are a man or a woman, if you are an entrepreneur who wants to talk about mindset, I would love to see you in there. Just go to: hollyworton.com/group and you will be redirected to the Facebook group. And that’s all for now, thank you so much for listening; if you enjoyed this episode you can do one of your action steps and please leave a quick review on iTunes; it would really mean the world to me. Thank you so much.

And remember to visit hollyworton.com/215 for the show notes on this episode. Thank you.